BBL 2016/17, 12th Match, Review: Renegades prevail over Stars in the Melbourne derby

Published - 01 Jan 2017, 16:51 IST | Updated - 01 Jan 2017, 16:51 IST

3 Min Read

A strong crowd of around 80, 000 spectators who thronged the Melbourne Cricket Ground to witness the Stars and Renegades in the Melbourne Derby were treated with an entertaining close contest between the two teams which saw the latter team prevail over the former narrowly by eight runs.

The New Year was marked by stunning captaincy choices, spectacular fielding and acrobatic fielding and catching. Batting first, The Renegades posted a challenging 171/4 after being put into bat first by the Stars. In response, the Stars, who continued to be winless in the both the matches they played for far in the tournament, were thwarted by the opposition bowlers and were effectively restricted to 151/9, just 8 runs short of the revised 159 runs target.

The Renegades kept a good grip on the proceedings right from the word go in the second innings. From getting an opening breakthrough in the first over of the defence to creating panic during the final overs of the match, the Renegades looked in control.

The day began on a stunning note. The Renegades made two changes. Dwayne Bravo, who will miss the rest of the tournament with a serious hamstring injury and Nathan Rimmington, who was left out were replaced by Cameron Stevenson and Trent Lawford in an attempt to bolster the bowling attack.

Skipper Aaron Finch, it seemed was highly impressed with the pinch hitting skills of Sunil Narine and decided to give him a promotion right to the top of the batting order as his opening partner. Everyone was obviously taken by surprise. The mystery spinner did not disappoint and responded well hitting 21 from just 13 laced with two boundaries and one amazing six.

All these happened inside the 3.4 overs of the match before was he was removed by Boland thanks to a fielding effort from Kevin Pietersen who took a stellar catch running backwards before diving and tumbling over to finish the dismissal and leave the commentators flabbergasted. The next few over saw Renegades lose momentum as Marcus Harris and Finch departing in short successions.

Rains then made a brief appearance and made the umpires revalue the target to 159 from 18 overs. The Stars, unfortunately, created a mess of the chase which should have been completed quite easily in the presence of the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright and David Hussey.

They lost Maxwell in the very first over and Pietersen in the 3^rd over as Renegades began getting a grip over the match. The middle order played brief cameos. David Hussey made 20 from 13 balls while James Faulkner added 25 from 24 deliveries ti keep the chase on. The only positive fact was the presence of Wright. His stay where he was involved in two small yet useful stands with Hussey and Faulkner kept the chase alive.

However, veteran Hogg in the 15^th over hurt the momentum badly and virtually dashed the Stars’ hopes by cleaning up Wright. The chinaman was, in fact, was in great rhythm today and ended up with numbers of 3/22 and also grabbed the Man of the match honours. An over later, they created a panic situation for themselves which saw three run outs in the 17th over. Eventually, this fiasco meant that they were unable to reach the target and had to give away two points to their rivals.